ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: The Supreme Court on Monday again asked the federation to submit a concise statement within a week regarding six army officers and a civilian being held by the military authorities for more than 18 months.

At the last hearing in September, the top court had given one-month time to the respondents, namely the federation of Pakistan through secretaries of the ministries of interior and defence and director-general ISI, to file comprehensive statement in the detention case.

An SC bench comprising Justice Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Falak Sher was hearing identical appeals of close relatives (mothers and wives) of five army officers and a citizen under custody of the military authorities.

When told that neither respondents filed their replies nor anyone was present to represent them, the Supreme Court summoned the Deputy Attorney General Raja Irshad and asked him to submit a concise statement on behalf of the federation within a week. The court also observed that the absence of the attorney general from the court was not appropriate and it seemed that the government was not taking interest in sensitive cases relating to the fundamental rights.

Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry, counsel for the petitioners, was apprehensive of handing over three army officers (Col Khalid Mahmood Abbasi, Lt-Col Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Maj Adil Quddus Khan) to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). They have been shifted to Jacobabad from Attock Fort, where they were detained earlier.

The counsel told the court that not a single officer had been court-martialled despite their detention of over one year. Separate applications have also been submitted by the petitioners in this regard.

The appeals were filed by Ms Yasmin Khalid, wife of Col Khalid Mahmood Abbasi; Ms Abida Parveen, wife of Lt-Col Abdul Ghaffar Khan; Ms Mumtaz Attaullah, wife of Maj. Attaullah Khan Mehmood; Ms Farina Ruhail Faraz, wife of Maj Ruhail Faraz; Ms Khadija Adil, wife of Maj Adil Quddus Khan and Ms Farzana Tasneem, mother of Capt Dr Usman Zafar. They all are under custody for violating the Army Act.

Similarly, the appeal of Sadia Sarwar Bhatti, wife of Sarwar Bhatti, under detention for his alleged involvement in the first assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf at Chanda Chichi Rawalpindi, was also clubbed along with these appeals.

The family members had pleaded before the apex court to set aside the order of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court of dismissing their petitions.

The Lahore High Court had dismissed the petitions of the army officials, comprising two colonels, three majors and one captain, on the grounds that Section 2-d of the Army Act 1952, had taken away the jurisdiction of the court to proceed with the petitions.

The petitioners in their challenge before the apex court contended that the high court had failed to exercise the constitutional authority and judicial power vested under the law while hearing the cases, despite the fact that Brig Ayub, judge advocate general (JAG), had conceded before the high court that the army officials were detained for the last one and half years.

The petitioners prayed to the court to declare the decision of the high court that the army act debarred its jurisdiction to hear such cases was against the law.